Peace Corps Initiatives for Addressing Safety and Security Challenges Hold Promise, but Progress Should be Assessed

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Peace Corps Initiatives for Addressing Safety and Security Challenges Hold Promise, but Progress Should be Assessed

July 25, 2002 Letter

The Honorable Cynthia A. McKinney

The Honorable Martin T. Meehan

House of Representatives

Approximately 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers currently serve in about 70 countries, where they face a variety of safety and security risks. Volunteers often live in areas with limited access to reliable communications, police, or medical services and, as Americans, may be viewed as relatively wealthy and hence good targets for criminal activity. Incidents such as the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the events of September 11, 2001, have heightened awareness about the risks facing all Americans, especially those living abroad. In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed doubling the number of volunteers worldwide and increasing the number of Peace Corps posts. You asked us to evaluate Peace Corps safety and security policies and practices. In this report, we (1) describe rates and trends in crime against volunteers and review the agency’s system for generating such information, (2) describe the agency’s framework for maintaining volunteer safety and security, (3) evaluate the Peace Corps’ implementation of this framework, and (4) review agency initiatives to improve current practices. We also describe practices employed by other organizations, such as the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, that face safety and security challenges similar to the Peace Corps.

To meet our objectives, we reviewed and analyzed Peace Corps documents and data, including safety and security guidance; data on crime against volunteers since 1990; the results of worldwide volunteer satisfaction surveys in 1998 and 1999; and reports on agency safety and security practices prepared by the Peace Corps’ Office of the Inspector General and by the agency’s safety and security staff. We conducted fieldwork in five countries (Bulgaria, El Salvador, Kenya, Senegal, and Ukraine) and met with Peace Corps staff, volunteers, and representatives of local organizations that host volunteers. Finally, we interviewed agency officials and representatives of other organizations that face similar safety challenges. Appendix I provides a more detailed description of our scope and methodology.

Results in Brief

The Peace Corps has reported increased numbers of assaults against its volunteers since it established a data collection system in 1990. The reported incidence rate for major physical assaults nearly doubled from about an average of 9 per 1,000 volunteer years1 in 1991-93 to an average of about 17 per 1,000 volunteer years in 1998-2000. The agency is not certain of the reasons for the higher occurrence rate, but officials have stated that its efforts to improve its system for collecting crime data may be a factor that has led to higher reported crimes. Yet it is unclear what the full extent of incidents may be because volunteer surveys have indicated that there is significant underreporting of crime. The Peace Corps has initiated efforts to encourage reporting and collect additional data, but there are also other unrealized opportunities for additional examination of data. For example, our analysis suggests that newer volunteers may be more likely to become victims of crime than their more experienced colleagues. Additional data analysis by the Peace Corps could enhance the agency’s ability to refine its intervention and prevention strategies.

The Peace Corps designates maintenance of volunteers’ health, safety, and security as the agency’s highest priority. To reduce the risks facing its volunteers, the Peace Corps has adopted policies that address, in broad terms, monitoring and disseminating information on the security environment; volunteer training; development of safe and secure housing and work sites for volunteers; monitoring volunteers and responding to incidents and concerns; and planning for emergencies such as evacuations. In addition to establishing agency policies, Peace Corps headquarters is responsible for providing guidance and training on how to implement these policies and supervision and oversight. The agency relies on its country directors—the heads of agency posts in foreign capitols—to develop and implement procedures that suit conditions in individual countries. Volunteers also play a role in ensuring their own safety by complying with agency policies and exercising good judgment and common sense. The Peace Corps’ efforts to ensure effective implementation of its safety and security policies have produced varying results. Volunteer surveys and our visits to five overseas posts indicate that volunteers appear to be generally satisfied with agency training programs and other efforts designed to emphasize safety and security awareness. However, there is mixed performance in key areas, such as developing safe and secure housing and work sites for volunteers, monitoring volunteers and responding when they express security concerns or experience criminal incidents, and preparing for emergencies. For example, while many volunteers are provided with adequate housing and clearly defined assignments, some experience safety problems resulting from housing that has not been inspected or does not meet post standards. A number of factors, including unclear guidance, staff training that is sometimes inadequate, uneven application of supervision and oversight mechanisms, and staff turnover, hamper Peace Corps efforts to ensure high-quality performance for the agency as a whole. For example, the Peace Corps has reported that high staff turnover, caused in part by the agency’s statutorily imposed 5-year limit on employment for U.S. direct hire staff, has resulted in a lack of institutional memory, producing a situation in which agency staff are continually "reinventing the wheel."

In May 2002, the Peace Corps informed us of a number of initiatives the agency intended to pursue to improve current safety and security practices. These initiatives are directed at many of the obstacles to improved performance that we identified, though they do not address turnover in agency staff. The Peace Corps has implemented some of these initiatives but many have yet to be integrated into agency operations. We recommend that the Director of the Peace Corps develop indicators to assess the effectiveness of the agency’s new initiatives and include the results of these initiatives in its annual reports under the Government Performance and Results Act. We also recommend that the Peace Corps develop a strategy to address staff turnover as it implements its initiatives. In written comments on a draft of this report, reprinted in appendix V, the Peace Corps concurred with our findings and provided additional information on the agency’s safety and security initiatives and technical comments that we incorporated as appropriate. The Peace Corps agreed to report on the results of its initiatives in its annual reports under the Government Performance and Results Act, as we recommended. However, the agency stated it could not effectively address the issue of staff turnover as we recommended because of its statutorily imposed 5-year limit on employment for U.S. direct hires. We modified our recommendation to suggest that the Peace Corps submit a proposal to Congress for changes in the law that would facilitate agency efforts to improve its safety and security practices.

Background

Created in 1961, the Peace Corps is mandated by statute to help meet developing countries’ need for trained manpower while promoting mutual understanding between Americans and other peoples.2 Volunteers commit to 2-year assignments in host communities where they work on projects such as teaching English, strengthening farmer cooperatives, or building sanitation systems. By developing relationships with members of the communities in which they live and work, volunteers contribute to greater intercultural understanding between Americans and host country nationals. Volunteers are expected to maintain a standard of living similar to that of their host community colleagues and coworkers. They are provided with stipends that are based on local living costs and housing similar to their hosts. Volunteers are not supplied with vehicles. Although the Peace Corps accepts older volunteers and has made a conscious effort to recruit minorities, the current volunteer population has a median age of 25 years and is 85 percent white. More than 60 percent of the volunteers are women.

The Peace Corps emphasizes community acceptance as the key to maintaining volunteer safety and security. The agency has found that volunteer safety is best ensured when volunteers are well–integrated into their host communities and treated as extended family members and contributors to development. While emphasizing protection measures such as locks and window bars, the Peace Corps generally avoids measures such as housing volunteers in walled compounds, which would reduce volunteer integration into the community. The agency also typically withdraws from countries in which breakdowns in civil authority require strong protection or deterrence measures to protect volunteers.3 To the extent that they share the Peace Corps’ commitment to advancing intercultural understanding, other organizations that face similar security and safety challenges also tend to emphasize community acceptance as an underlying principle. Appendix II presents in greater detail the safety and security practices of some of these organizations.

Conclusions

The Peace Corps is embarking on a major expansion of its volunteer workforce during a time of heightened risk for Americans living abroad. Providing safety and security for its volunteers is the Peace Corps’ highest priority. Our review of the agency’s efforts to ensure compliance with its basic safety and security policies and guidelines shows that there are cases of uneven implementation of key elements of the safety and security framework that could pose risks to volunteers. These include uneven performance in developing safe and secure housing and work sites, responding to volunteer concerns, and planning for emergencies.

The Peace Corps has recently announced several new initiatives to improve overall compliance with its safety and security policies. We believe that, if effectively implemented, the new initiatives can reduce potential risks facing volunteers. However, it is not yet clear how the Peace Corps will document its progress in achieving compliance or will share information about better practices. While the Peace Corps does generate reports on practices at individual posts, the agency does not currently have a means to (1) document the overall quality of its safety and security practices or (2) assess changes in the quality of these practices over time. The initiatives do not contain provisions for formal assessments or for documenting progress in implementing them so that this information can be shared with staff. Moreover, the Peace Corps has not indicated what action, if any, it intends to take in addressing the issue of staff turnover. We believe that the Peace Corps will need to address the implications of staff turnover if it is to effectively implement its new initiatives designed to ensure the safety and security of its volunteers.

Recommendations

To help ensure that the Peace Corps’ initiatives have their intended effect, we recommend that the Director develop indicators to assess the effectiveness of the initiatives and include the results of these initiatives in the agency’s annual reports under the Government Performance and Results Act. We also recommend that the director develop a strategy to address staff turnover as it implements its initiatives. Among other things, this strategy could include proposals to Congress to change the law concerning the 5-year limit on employment of U.S. direct hire staff.

Agency Comments

In written comments on a draft of this report, reprinted in appendix V, the Peace Corps concurred with our findings and provided additional information on the agency’s safety and security initiatives and technical comments that we incorporated as appropriate. In response to our first recommendation, the Peace Corps agreed to report on the results of its safety and security initiatives in its annual reports under the Government Performance and Results Act. In response to our second recommendation, the Peace Corps stated that it had developed a strategy for mitigating the effects of high staff turnover as it implements its safety and security initiatives, but that unless the law concerning the 5-year rule is changed the agency cannot effectively address the difficulties presented by staff turnover. Given the agency’s position on this matter, we modified our recommendation to suggest that the Peace Corps submit a proposal to Congress for changes in the 5-year rule that would facilitate agency efforts to improve its safety and security practices. We are sending this report to interested congressional committees and the Director of the Peace Corps.

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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Special Reports; Peace Corps - Safety and Security

I have a 21 year old innocent, meek daughter who has been willingly assigned to a remote education post in Madagascar, two months from now...the more I read about safety and lack of communications and such, I really DO NOT want her to go...can anyone out reading this, tell me from experience, what the situation in Madagascar, is really like? Am I not to be worried?..the USSTate Dept website doesn't paint such a rosy picture about that nation for US citizens...can someone please write and share their knowledge? thanks.

Your daughter should be able to access the post's recent safety and security assessments and summary incident reports submitted by the country director to washington and to the embassy. Also, request a copy of the staff version - containing more background and procedural information than the volunteer version - of the emergency action plan, which should be on file in PC/washington (country desk officer), at the PC office in country (country director) and at the local embassy (regional security officer). It covers S&S overview, communications facilities and action plans, etc. - for inidividual as well as wide scale emergencies.

Try calling or emailing the country desk officer, first, to have one point of contact coordinate gathering the information. However, keep in mind that your 21-year old daughter is the volunteer and may need to request the information directly and/or provide written permission for you to do so on her behalf.